Conferences

September 18 & 19th, 2008
Victoria Inn – Thunder Bay, Ontario

The 2008 Northwestern Ontario Regional Conference Committee is busy planning events for this year’s program.  Preliminary topics include:  Engaging Aboriginal Communities, Alternative Renewable Energy, Building Code Changes, Provincial Municipal Fiscal Service Delivery Review, Cultural Planning, Updates to the Northern Growth Plan, etc.  Please watch for updates to this list.
The bus tours this year will include a walk through time at the City of Thunder Bay Museum with Tory Tronud, Executive Director, and a sneak peak at the Waterfront Masterplan for the City of Thunder Bay.  Wear some comfortable walking shoes!

Require more information?  Please contact Cherie Russell, Conference Chair at cherie.russell@ontario.ca or 807-473-3135 | Toll-free in Ontario: 1-800-465-5027

Come shape the reframing of tourism's purpose from "an end to a means." This year, the conference is here in Blackstone River Valley, Rhode Island on October 15 to 18, 2008. Click for full program.

You are invited to shape the conversation. The content of Civic Tourism (2) will come from you, the participant. Comment here to tell us what you most want from your conference and watch for more updates.

Tourism can no longer be based on just promotion. It's center of gravity must be: community involvement, foresight, resiliency, and sustainability.

Dan Shilling, the founder of Civic Tourism, uses "place based" tourism which encompasses: Adventure Tourism, Cultural, Tourism, Ecotourism, Geotourism, Heritage Tourism, Life Seeing Tourism, Nature Tourism, Experiential Tourism, Literary Tourism, Sustainable Tourism, Urban Tourism & Volunteer Tourism.

Our questions now become:
Can we balance the growth of tourism world-wide with the quality of life people living in our communities seek?
Can we do no harm?
Can tourism repair and restore damage done in communities?

Special Spaces For Unique Ideas
Building Communities From A Creative Centre
 Event: The Creative Construct: Building for Culture and Creativity Symposium

Venue: Fairmont Château Laurier in Ottawa
Information: www.cultureandcommunities.ca

Centres of cultural activity and creativity don’t exist in a vacuum. They arise from a territory and a set of community relationships. But how any particular creative centre comes into being is always a unique story.

Held at the Château Laurier in Ottawa from April 28 through May 1, 2008, Creative Construct is organized by the Centre of Expertise on Culture and Communities at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and the City of Ottawa, and features first-hand accounts of exceptional centres and their community connections.

The Creative Construct international symposium features over fifty speakers from Canada, the USA, Australia, France, Italy, and Britain. These notable speakers, experts and artists will bring to delegates the latest intelligence on what works and ways and means to create cultural infrastructure in the context of creative communities and the cultural economy.
Attending Creative Construct will be cultural planners and policy-makers, civic leaders and elected officials, architects, cultural sector leaders and entrepreneurs, educators and urban theorists interested in sharing ideas and learning about the latest innovations and developments from around the world.

For a complete program listing and further information visit www.cultureandcommunities.ca

The annual Ontario Heritage
Conservation Conference this year is in Collingwood, May 30 to June 1, 2008.
Sponsored by Community Heritage Ontario, the Architectural Conservancy of
Ontario, and the Canadian Association of Heritage Professionals, the theme of
this year's conference, "LANDMARKS NOT LANDFILL" is centred on
heritage preservation and environmental sustainability.

The Ministry of Culture is
sponsoring morning refreshments and nutrition breaks on all three days of the conference.

On Friday, the first day of
the conference, opening remarks will be made by as-yet-to-be determined
Ministry of Culture personnel while MCL staff and Ontario Heritage Trust staff
are presenting on a variety of topics. These include:

Ministry of Culture  read more »

AMCTO (Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario) is Ontario’s premier municipal staff association, with approximately 2,200 members representingexpertise in all facets of municipal administration and management. AMCTO members represent the senior staff in Ontario’s 445 municipalities, who make or influence, key decisions impacting the operation of government and their communities.

View the program and register online

March 18-19-20, 2008
Crowne Plaza Hotel
OTTAWA, ON

The nation's capital has been named host region for the TORC Rural Development Conference 2008. Building off the success of TORC's involvement with Ottawa's Rural Summit (November 2005) and the region's notable enhancements in rural/urban relations, the location was deemed a fitting one to focus on collaborative solutions for an evolving landscape. For two and a half days this spring, TORC will gather together rural and urban stakeholders from across Ontario to share in key learnings and practical strategies aimed at empowering rural communities in this "changing climate and climate of change". "Leading the Rural Renaissance" promises to engage delegates through a wide range of informative sessions, interactive and mobile workshops, skills development, table talks and debates, each with an emphasis on real life success stories that inspire and ignite!

Biew the program and register online 

Nonprofit organizations are increasingly experimenting with new forms of shared space and shared services. By working together, they are able to achieve greater efficiencies in their operations and greater impact in their local communities. Here in Ontario we have a number of organizations who are pioneering this field. From shared work spaces and back-office services to community hubs and project trusteeship, these groups are exploring the ways that sharing can lead to social change. Our goal is to bring together nonprofit organizations from across the province to share experiences and strategies for putting collboration to work. Sharing for Social Change will allow us to explore questions like:

What experiments are underway...and are they working?

What are the secrets from the veterans?

How can we all benefit from sharing for social change?

The Centre for Social Innovation and Tides Canada/Sage Centre, working closely with our supporters, have come together to host this one-day event. To learn more and to sign up on our mailing list to receive event updates - including registration information - visit www.socialinnovation.ca/sharingforsocialchange.

At this annual conference, Bill Poole, Chair of the Municipal Cultural Planning Partnership will present a concurrent session focusing on municipal cultural planning, how it benefits the community, how the archival community can contribute to it and how archivists can get involved.

Bill's session will occur:
Friday, June 6 2008
1:30-3:00
Windsor, Ontario

More information to follow...

The Business Cluster Policy Secretariat, MEDT and Ministry of Culture are pleased to present the following Panel of Speakers:

Onalee Groves, Cultural Development Officer, City of Barrie
Natasha Lovenuk Markham, Regional Consultant, Ministry of Culture
Shannon Brennan, Recreation Programmer, City of Dryden
Dan Taylor, Economic Development Officer, Prince Edward County

The session will be moderated by: William Poole, Chair, Municipal Cultural Planning Partnership and Director, Centre for Cultural Management, University of Waterloo

Municipalities across Ontario are recognizing the power of culture to transform economies and communities. Forty-three are currently engaged in the municipal cultural planning (MCP) process. MCP is part of a holistic, place-based approach to build Ontario’s creative economy and contribute to vibrant, liveable, prosperous and sustainable communities.
This moderated panel will discuss MCP case studies from the perspective of three diverse communities that have integrated culture into their economic restructuring and community development strategies. The panel will share insights, challenges, outcomes and opportunities in MCP development and implementation. As part of the Ontario Government’s Strategic Research Priorities, this policy forum supports the research of the Communities in Transition initiative.

Through learning forums like this one, the Business Cluster Policy Secretariat supports its mandate to build policy capacity in the business cluster ministries.

PLEASE REGISTER by Noon, February 25, 2008, by e-mail to Asgu.Hagos@edt.gov.on.ca <mailto:Asgu.Hagos@edt.gov.on.ca>

Wednesday, February 27th 2008, 9:30 -11:30 a.m.
The Ontario Investment and Trade Centre
250 Yonge Street, 35th floor
(Eaton Centre - enter at 250 Yonge entrance, south of Dundas)
Main Theatre

The Toronto region’s global competitiveness increasingly depends on
the ability of its private, public and social/cultural spheres to support
collaboration, creativity and innovation. Taking on this challenge and
opportunity can help realize the promise and aspirations of Toronto
as a global creative city.